Today, USAF released five shots of the February 18 arrival at Kadena AB.

An F-22 Raptor lands at Kadena AFB, marking the aircraft's first overseas deployment. The jet is one of 12 along with more than 250 Airmen deployed from Langley AFB, to Kadena as part of an air expeditionary force rotation on 18 February, 2007. [USAF photo by A1C Ryan Ivacic]

F-22A Raptor #04-4066 lands at Kadena AFB, marking the aircraft's first overseas deployment. The jet is one of 12 along with more than 250 Airmen deployed from Langley AFB, to Kadena as part of an air expeditionary force rotation on 18 February, 2007. [USAF photo by A1C Kelly Timney]

04-4066, 94th FS (according to my listings)

More in the <a href="gallery_item15059_page28.html">F-22 photo gallery</a>.

What kind of action can the U.S. Air Force F-22 pilots now in Japan expect to see in the coming weeks? Well, according to the Japanese defense ministry, there’s plenty of activity in its skies to keep an air-to-air fighter busy.

The F-22 deployment got off to a somewhat delayed start, since the fighters’ arrival in Japan had to be postponed to fix a software issue associated with the aircraft’s navigation equipment. But now, the U.S. Air Force has finally gotten the first of a dozen of its top-of-the-line fighters to Kadena Air Force Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa as part of the first excursion for F-22s overseas.

Lieutenant Colonel Wade Tolliver, commander of the 27th Fighter Squadron (pics!) the F-22’s belong to says that “to opportunity to fly it here in the Pacific with the F-15s and other aircraft is something we are looking forward to.” There’s certainly seem to be ample amounts of “other aircraft.”

Although somewhat historic, data compiled by the Japanese Air Self Defense Force shows that in the first part of the fiscal year, there’s been a lot of activity to keep air-to-air interceptors busy. In the six months ending September 30 – Japan’s fiscal year starts in April – the Japanese air force had to scramble 149 aircraft to patrol its skies because of potentially hostile intruders.

What’s particularly interesting, and maybe reflective of a geopolitical shift in the region, is the source of most of those transgressions: Russia.

Russia has historically been the largest source of responses, but the scale of activity in those six months is notable. The figure is almost 20% higher than the number of times Japan’s air force had to take to the air to deal with Russian aircraft during the entire 2005 fiscal year.

By contrast, encounters between Japan and its other large neighbor, China, are on a major downturn and headed to more traditional, low levels. In 2005, Japan scrambled aircraft 107 times to deal with Chinese flights. That was a spike from the modest number of incidents in 2003 and 2004.

There’s been a modest number, five to be exact, of Japanese fighters scrambled to deal with Taiwanese aircraft, too, as well as four such actions for “other” countries that weren’t further identified. Whether the U.S. Air Force, or the Japanese for that matter, will let the F-22 get in on any action remains to be seen.

Today, Langley´s public website released the following additional air refueling shot (same photo sequence):

An F-22 Raptor receives fuel from a 909th ARS KC-135 Stratotanker over the Pacific Ocean on February 18th, 2007 while en route to Kadena AB, Okinawa, Japan. Boom operator of the KC-135 is TSgt. Clifton Bond with the 18th Operations Support Squadron at Kadena. [USAF photo by SrA. Jeremy McGuffin]

Did anyone get to see the "report" on CNN about the Raptor's navigation system issues on its way to Okinawa? Saw it on Wolf Blitzer's (what an awful "reporter") "Situation Room" last night, and they were almost gleefuly recounting how the "$180 million to $400 million" Raptor couldn't handle the International Date Line and how the manufacturer neglected to take into account an issue similar to Y2K. They stated that the USAF was lucky they weren't deploying them to an actual war zone or they would have had billions of dollars crashing into the Pacific Ocean. Again, this was all recounted with a sense of shaudenfreude, including by some retired general CNN has hired as resident "expert" on military matters. What a bunch of f*ckers, really. There is no doubt that some of these people actually WANT to see the military fail, whether it is regarding an expensive and critical weapon system or in Iraq. Of course, no mention whatsoever about the Raptor's incredible accomplishments. Bunch of bastards...

idesof wrote:Did anyone get to see the "report" on CNN about the Raptor's navigation system issues on its way to Okinawa? Saw it on Wolf Blitzer's (what an awful "reporter") "Situation Room" last night, and they were almost gleefuly recounting how the "$180 million to $400 million" Raptor couldn't handle the International Date Line and how the manufacturer neglected to take into account an issue similar to Y2K. They stated that the USAF was lucky they weren't deploying them to an actual war zone or they would have had billions of dollars crashing into the Pacific Ocean. Again, this was all recounted with a sense of shaudenfreude, including by some retired general CNN has hired as resident "expert" on military matters. What a bunch of f*ckers, really. There is no doubt that some of these people actually WANT to see the military fail, whether it is regarding an expensive and critical weapon system or in Iraq. Of course, no mention whatsoever about the Raptor's incredible accomplishments. Bunch of bastards...

2 !!!

I didn't see the report, but I read a pretty good article about what actually happened. Safety of flight wasn't compromised. Effectiveness would have been, but this is why we have exercises.

CNN really hyped up the situation big-time. They made it sound like our nation was defenseless, the F-22 was useless. They made it sound like a major national security threat and F-22 was useless. CNN was using negative hype to dramatize the situation to try to keep viewers attention. So they have all this negative misleading hype for about a half an hour before the interview. They finally have an interview with the military, and the military dispels their hype real quick. As usual there was no apology from CNN for misleading the public.

CNN would be the best media outlet if they did not have such a far lean to the left, if they did not hype things, if they would be more technically and factually correct. If they would stop stating their opinions as facts.

CNN should stop manipulating the news politically, and just stick to the facts. They are supposed to report the news, not manufacture it.

Get a thicker skin guys.
Even you have to admit that having 6 out of the 12 Super duper i rule the skies F-22's being reduced to the equivalent of a supersonic piper cub is hilarious.
My understanding is they lost all combat capability and most of their navigation systems as well.

The news is the news
Just because the news is not favorable to you does not make it invalid.

On the light side, that bug could keep Japan from ever using the F-22 to attack Hawaii again.

The news is the news Just because the news is not favorable to you does not make it invalid.

I'll agree to that, but it's the extra hype that goes along with the presentation that pisses me off. OK, so a software bug was found. Not the end of the world. This is almost as bad as the crapstorm that happened in the media when they had to cut a Raptor canopy.

On the light side, that bug could keep Japan from ever using the F-22 to attack Hawaii again.